


Doomsday

by SnowWolf5552



Series: Original Works [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Gen, Heavy Timeskip, If people bound together and rebuilt after the apocalypse instead of fucking about, Implied Sexual Content, Implied Violence, Implied blood, Implied childbirth, Kinda-sorta based on Fallout, Monologue, Post-Apocalypse, Prompt Fill, Short, Some Swearing??, Why Did I Write This?, cant remember, i wrote this ages ago okay, idk man, some dialogue, what's even happening to me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-27 02:23:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10799715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowWolf5552/pseuds/SnowWolf5552
Summary: In which the apocalypse occurs. Humanity rebuilds.





	Doomsday

**Author's Note:**

> Possibly the crappiest work I've ever written, but that's up for debate. If you like it, go ahead and say.

Everyone knows how the world ended three years ago. I had been nineteen at the time, the age where you like to think you know everything, even though you _know_  you don't. Either way, it doesn't matter anymore.

The world had ended in a solar flare, destroying the grid and damn near everything else in the following months. We had gotten twelve hours in advance, but that seemed to just make it worse.

Chaos had ignited in the streets. I had taken my two roommates, Penelope and Angelica, taken virtually everything we had and drove away as quickly as possible. We were still in sight of the city when we saw all the lights power off. In the dark, I could see the flames licking up the side of a company building.

I had kept driving that night. The three of us eeked out a living by scavenging and keeping our heads down. A year in, a group of bandits stole the car and killed Penelope. Angelica and I ran and ran until our legs ached and we ran out of water.

It was two and a half years in when we found a group of ten or so. We all were initially distrusting of each other, but we were soon integrated into the group, making it about twelve. A few months later, the leader of the group, Albert, was killed on a scavenging mission.

I was more or less made the leader, voted by my peers into the position. I got into the job rather swimmingly in my opinion. I didn't fuck anything up too badly in my first week of office, at least.

Now, it was nearly winter and we had no place to stay. We had enough food to last unless something happened.

I stood in the tent, looking over a map of the area. It was an older map, but we had made changes as we saw fit. I rubbed my chin, peering down at the parchment. There was a small dot on the map that marked a town, which piqued my interest. _We might be able to rebuild,_  I mused.

I looked up at Angelica, who was my second in command. "Can you get a small team together and search this town?" I asked, pointing to the nameless dot. "It might be a good place to wait out the winter," The blonde nodded knowingly.

"It looks like it's on a plateau," she said, tracing the large circle around it. "A large plateau. I'd bet all of my pre-Flare money that it's arable," I smiled widely at her.

"Let's figure out, then," I said cheerily and watched her leave. The next morning, I watched them come back. Angelica ran over to me with a wide smile on her face.

"It's arable," she said, grinning. "Nice green grass, half a dozen houses and other buildings, and a small amount of livestock. There's a wild horse herd around the plateau, too," she added. I knew Angelica had grown up on a farm and could see the faint nostalgia in her eyes.

"I'm surprised the livestock has lasted this long," I commented. She shrugged.

"There was a farm there, I think," she said. "I've no idea why anyone hasn't raided it or tried to settle there," I nodded slowly, cupping my elbow in one hand as I laid the other on my chin.

"So, let's go," I said. Angelica jokingly rolled her eyes and began walking in the direction of her tent. I did the same with the command tent, which doubled as my personal tent.

We had little to no furniture and usually, any tables were really just tree stumps. I had a hammock to sleep in and a simple knapsack with only my most valuable items. The rest (the furs, poles, map) went on a cart with a single ox to pull it.

Gemma and her two children sat in the cart while the older woman's hand rested on her bulging belly. The oldest child was a girl named Hannah and was five. The second was a three-year-old boy named Kian. I found myself smiling at the two; they were the only children I knew that had survived being born or the initial madness.

Traveling to the plateau took six hours. Getting up the slope to the top was another three hours, and another three to get to the town. It was small, with about six or seven houses in total, a general store, a tiny post office, and a small town hall. I felt something bloom in my chest when I saw it.

The others fanned out into the town, searching the houses and picking which they liked. I resided in a red-colored house with Angelica, her boyfriend Paul, and his brother Peter. Gemma, her children, her husband Caleb, and his brother Jim, lived in the house across the street. Our next door neighbor was Desmond and his pregnant wife, Sarah.

The other three houses needed considerable repairs, as well as the post office. The town looked as if it were abandoned even before the Flare. Over the next several months, we found wood in the general store to repair the houses, first the ones we lived in, then the others.

Desmond and Caleb built a pen for the cattle, another for the chicken, and a third for the pigs at the farm, then brought them to the town. Jim, who had been a horse breeder, had tried to tame some of the horses with Angelica. Three young horses, two female and one male, were able to be tamed and brought back to the plateau.

Angelica brought seeds from the farm and planted them with every able-bodied man, woman, and child during the autumn. Just before winter, a handful of wearied travelers settled in one of the spare houses, bringing the town's population up from twelve to seventeen.

The next spring brought two foals and several other livestock, as well as Gemma's baby boy, who she named Xavier. Sarah's own belly swelled with child.

The crops sprouted through the ground, giving them ample reason to celebrate. Traders began to pass through the town and gave them supplies to start building and repairing. A couple, Ian and Opal, even broke away with their small family to take up shop in the general store.

Angelica came up to me one day, grinning widely. "I think that we've been here long enough to name the town, don't you think?" I chuckled and crossed my arms.

"What do you think we should name it then?" I asked companionably. "Nothing too ridiculous - I know how you name things," Angelica rolled her eyes.

"I was thinking Sanctuary," she replied simply. I nodded and she grinned again. "Sanctuary it is. I'll make a sign or two,"

The following month, Angelica and Paul married. Sarah had a boy she named Ryan in the middle of July. More people settled, sometimes in ones or twos, or whole families. I set up a refugee camp so people would have a roof over their heads when they came. The air was filled with the sound of sawing wood and hammering.

Houses sprung up seemingly out of nowhere and I was responsible for more and more people. People came to me to get permission to hunt and fish in the area. I gave them that and found myself needing structure in the town.

"Angelica, can you do a census?" I asked her rather abruptly one day. "Who they are, how old they are, what they can do, who they're related to... that kind of stuff," She shrugged and nodded.

"I'll get some paper or something and get it all down," the younger woman told me, smiling.

The following month was rather smooth - I was able to give jobs to people who were qualified, and there was less squabbling over resources. Desmond became a woodworker, Caleb a herder, and Jim a horseman. Gemma was given a loom and Sarah a bow and arrow to hunt with. Angelica became a farmer with her husband, and Peter became a guard.

Sanctuary flourished within the next five years. Angelica had a child; a boy named Uriel. Sarah had a girl named Lily, and Gemma another boy she named Brendon. Half a dozen other children were born in the autumn, and two in the middle of winter. The town expanded swiftly. A workshop was built, as was a small ranch, granary, warehouse, and blacksmith.

We soon made small solar panels, harvesting sunlight to make electricity. We also sent messengers to any other cities that had sprung up, letting them know what had happened here.

The next two years, the plateau flooded with people. Pioneers colonized the lowlands, making small villages or hamlets. Sanctuary built walls and watchtowers all across the highlands. Bandits attempted to raid the small villages, but Peter's Guard rebuked them, sending them fleeing into the desert.

Life was good. I eventually married Peter, finding him attractive in both looks and personality. He was kind, loyal, and level-headed, taller than me by nearly a foot, with dark eyes and dark hair to contrast my red hair and green eyes. Angelica had five more children in the next ten years, and I had only three; Liam, Jasper, and Alice.

I watched my three children play in the dust of the street, following after them at a leisurely pace. I had instilled peace and prosperity across the region, but I hadn't done it alone.

I turned my gaze to where I could see the original group relaxing in the shade of a large oak tree. I smiled softly, feeling satisfaction grow in my chest. It had been a long and arduous journey, one full of perils and pitfalls. But I'd made it, and everyone else did, too.

Even as I withered away in my old age, I knew that I had made the right choice by rebuilding. I saw the second Gunpowder Age, the second Renaissance, the second Manifest Destiny. History was repeating itself, and I could only pray that it wouldn't end up the same as it had when I was alive.

I looked into the eyes of Peter as several of our grandchildren curled up around us in the bed. He smiled softly, dark eyes crinkling at the corners. I smiled back, closed my eyes, and let my final breath go.


End file.
